Numbered Headings for Confluence

What it's for

Some pages are documents: quality manuals, procedures, specifications, policies, contracts. People refer to them by section — "see 4.2" — and that only works if the sections are numbered. Confluence has never numbered headings for you, and numbering them by hand falls apart the first time somebody inserts a section in the middle. This app does it for you and keeps it right.

Using it

1. 01
   Open the page you want numbered

   Under the page title you'll find Numbered headings. If you tend to look in the ⋯ menu instead, ⋯ → Apps → Numbered headings opens the same thing.

2. 02
   Choose how the numbers should look

   1, 1.1, 1.1.1 is the default. You can also add a trailing dot, use the classic I / A / 1 / a outline, letter or roman chapters, or start numbering at Heading 2 if your page title is really the first heading.

3. 03
   Check the preview

   The right-hand side shows your actual headings with the new numbers on them, updating as you change the style. Anything that will change is highlighted, and the count at the bottom tells you how many headings are affected. Nothing happens to the page until you press Apply.

4. 04
   Apply

   The numbers go into the headings and the page refreshes behind the dialog. From then on the page keeps itself numbered, unless you switch that off.

5. 05
   Change your mind whenever

   Set the format back to None and press Remove numbering. Out come the numbers — exactly the ones that were added, including any of your own that were replaced on the way in.

Numbering styles

If you need finer control

Most people never open Advanced. Behind it you can set:

• Which heading levels get numbered — all of them, or just Heading 2 down to Heading 4
• A different kind of numeral per level: 1, I, i, A, a, or Greek
• A starting number other than 1, for a chapter that continues from another page
• Text in front of every number, so a section reads A.1.1
• A dot at the end of the number
• Whether numbers already typed into headings get tidied away

Where the numbers show up

Everywhere, because they are simply part of the heading. You see them while you edit. The table of contents shows them. Search results show them. They come along in PDF and Word exports, and in anything you copy and paste out of the page. There is no macro wrapped around your content, so nothing on the page renders differently than it did before.

Keeping up with changes

Numbering stays on until you turn it off. Add a section, move one, delete one, and everything below is renumbered a few seconds after the page is published. Edits that don't affect the numbering don't touch the page at all, so this doesn't turn into a stream of notifications. If you would rather number a page once and leave it alone, switch off Keep numbering up to date before you apply.

Pages that are already numbered by hand

If people have been typing numbers into headings themselves, the app leaves them alone — so a heading reads "1.1 1. Overview" until you say otherwise. That is deliberate: it can't always tell a heading that was numbered from one that merely starts with a number ("2026 roadmap"), and it will not guess at your text without being asked. Tick Replace numbers already typed into headings under Advanced and it clears them as it applies its own; everything it would remove is shown struck through in the preview first, and Remove numbering puts it all back.

Your content stays where it is

The app reads and writes only the pages you switch numbering on for, and nothing leaves Atlassian — no page content is sent to us, to analytics, or anywhere else. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

Good to know

• Because the numbers really are part of the page, adding them saves a new version of the page — the same as any other edit, so watchers are notified once. After that, edits that don't change the numbering leave the page alone completely.
• Automatic updates land a few seconds after someone publishes, not while they type. Refresh the page to see them.
• Links that point at a specific heading may need updating, because Confluence builds those links from the heading text and the text now starts with a number.
• Numbers you typed yourself are only ever removed when you press Apply with the preview in front of you — never by an automatic update.

If something looks wrong

No numbers after an edit? Refresh the page — the update lands a moment after publishing. A heading with two numbers, like "1.1 1. Overview"? The second one was typed by hand: open Advanced, turn on the option to tidy those away, and apply again. A heading skipped? Check which heading levels you've chosen to number — anything outside that range is left alone on purpose. A message about the licence? A Confluence admin can start a trial or manage the subscription under Apps → Manage apps.

Still stuck?

Email info@janez.tech and we'll help. The support page says what to include so we can answer in one go.